2017 Meeting Minutes

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Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting MinutesJanuary 21, 2017

​Carol Jones, President of the Rush County Genealogical Society called the meeting to order at 11:00 a.m. The meeting having been delayed a week due to the forecast for Icy weather. She asked Katrina Cooper, Secretary to read the minutes of the November 12, 2016 meeting. There was a question from Carol Jones about giving funds to the Beech Settlement. Marilyn Yager, Treasurer said she has written two checks to the Beech Church fund – one at least was last month as the speaker advised she could take no payment for coming as it is part of her job and said we could make a donation to the Beech Church instead if we liked. She will check when the other funds were disbursed and the minutes will be corrected as needed. Katrina also read the minutes of the Nov. 15, 2016 Officer’s Meeting.

​Carol Jones asked us all to be thinking of longtime member, Linda Mahan as she has been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. She will be having chemotherapy treatment; however, at this time her white count is very low.

Carol asked Kevin Harr to tell us about the videos being done by Satolli Glassmeyer around the county. He will be here working on other projects and has offered to do one for just $299 since he will already be in the area. We could apply for a grant from the Rush County Community Foundation for funds. The group felt cemeteries would be the subject best suited to our interests. It was decided that Carol should pick up an application to pursue the grant. He is already doing one on the Covered Bridges, the Princess Theater/Masonic Lodge, Memorial Gymnasium and the East Hill Cemetery. Members asked Kevin why Rush County Historical Society was not sponsoring a video(s). It was thought that they are concentrating on putting heating and air conditioning in the carriage house.

Treasurer Marilyn Yager reported that we currently have a balance of $3,596.29. She had went by the Post Office and was able to pay the next year’s fee of $48 before the cost increase to $52.00. She mentioned that she picked up several checks for 2017 membership fees.

Carol will not be able to be at the February meeting and Vice President Bill Baetz will preside over the meeting. She noted that Eleanor Arnold has agree to do a presentation in November.

Bill Baetz brought up a discussion about the Queries showing on our website. Katrina has responded to several with only response back from one person. They all seem to be older and need to be deleted and we need to give instruction to send queries to our e-mail address which Carol, Bill and Katrina all have access to.

Katrina Cooper introduced Marilyn Gray Roberts, the daughter of Donald and Norma Lee Gray who grew up on a farm east of Mays. Her family has deep roots in the community and she was active in Center Christian Church and 4-H. Marilyn gave a very interesting talk about the Mays community sending around a map of the town and shared many photographs with the group. Eleven members and guest enjoyed her presentation.

Bill Baetz, Vice President, called the RCGS meeting to order at 11:00 with nine in attendance. Katrina Cooper, secretary, read the minutes which were approved. Marilyn Yager, treasurer, reported our balance to be $4134 which includes several dues and a gift to fund one of the Sattoli Glassmeyer videos. She also reported that she had received $15.50 from Amazon Smiles so people making Amazon purchases and listing RCGS does help add to our treasury.

Bill reported that after our October, 2016 meeting when several had difficulty in accessing Wi-Fi in the Library basement. He had offered the Library that RCGS would be willing to purchase an extender. However, the last two meetings, he has been able to get Wi-Fi in the Library’s meeting room.

Bill advised that after discussion with Katrina Cooper, the dated queries on our website have been removed. He saved the files in case they would be needed. He has changed the verbiage for queries to be submitted via our e-mail.Bill removed the cemetery committee listing as it is no longer active. He did leave the notation that Pam Steed was the founder of RCGS. After what Marilyn said about the Amazon Smile program, he will add instructions on how to use this as a way of donating to the organization. It was noted that the name on our Facebook page is still rushcogs. Can this be changed to rcgsociety.org?

For new business, discussion turned to having a video project for Rush County cemeteries and other topics that fit with our Genealogy interests. It was thought at first that Satolli Glassmeyer would be filming today; however, Shirley Biehl reported after looking through Gary Crull’s book on the Raleigh Zion Cemetery, she felt we should hold off until the scenery would be green again. Satolli is in Rushville today doing videos at the East Hill Cemetery and the Courthouse. He hopes to come by at the end of our meeting to speak with us about his projects of capturing historic sites on video.

Suggestion was made that we apply for a grant to cover 10 videos from the Rush County Community Foundation. Due to the timing of the application process, we would not have an answer until about June. Shirley voiced that she did not think it would be difficult to raise funds through donations as well. Each video costs $299. If we are going to do videos on different cemeteries, we will need to do research on Important people buried in each cemetery – like William S. Hall at the Raleigh Cemetery. It was again suggested to include the Beech Church. It was mentioned that Tracy Porter might be a good resource on the Little Blue Cemetery. Shirley introduced our guest at that time - Joy Hall of the William S. Hall family.

When questions were brought forth about how hard it would be to get a grant, Shirley passed around the application and many agreed that it was felt that people would give donations once they hear of the project. Kevin Harr has gotten a grant from them to publish his book. He is hoping to have it completed by November.

For our March meeting Joan Hostetler will give a presentation on photo preservation. Katrina asked if Larry Stout had agreed to speak at our May meeting and Marilyn Yager advised that he will be speaking about Knowles Shaw, the author and composer who wrote “Bringing in the Sheaves”. He is buried in the East Hill Cemetery.

Satolli Glassmeyer was able to join us at the end of our meeting. He handed out a wish list of sorts - ideas/projects for videos in Rush County. He was interested in the Beech Settlement as well. He has spoken to the president of the Steam Engine show when he did the video on the Rush County Covered Bridges. He stated that the cost is $299 if we do the research and he really just has to interview a knowledgeable person. He would charge $499 if he has to do the research and write out a script. As far as scheduling, he usually sets them up on Saturdays and can do 4-5 per day. It takes about an hour – 15 minutes for the interview and 45 minutes to film the site. It will take him a couple of weeks to edit the video before it is ready. With this cost in mind, Satolli suggested we might apply for $499 x 10 videos. If we can do our own research, we could do more videos, but we would have the funds if we cannot do it ourselves.

How does this benefit us? He would put our name at the end of the video that the video is being sponsored by RCGS with our contact information. We would be given a master copy on a flash drive. Satolli would hold the copyright. He stated that he has done over 200 videos over the last three years. Looking ahead to July, the Saturdays we asked him to pencil in were the 15th and the 29th. Satolli was thanked for coming and the meeting was adjourned.

Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting MinutesMarch 11, 2017​President Carol Jones called the RCGS meeting to order Saturday, March 11, 2017. Katrina Cooper read the minutes and they were approved. Treasurer Marilyn Yager reported that we have a $4,029.68 balance. We received a Thank you from the Beech Foundation. Nineteen were in attendance.

Carol reported on Genealogy News. May 17, 2017 the Indiana State Library will be hosting “Genealogy for Night Owls” from 4:30 – 8:30 pm. There will be sessions by various groups and people such as Betty Warren, a professional genealogist and the Central Indiana DNA Interest Group. There is no cost; however, you must register by May 16th.

If you are interested in Civil War information, there is a good site to consult at discover.civilwargovernors.org sponsored by the Civil War Governors of Kentucky.

After hearing our discussion on the video project, Donna Tauber mentioned she has been working with about ten Ball State students who are videotaping sites in the Henry County area. She meets with them about once a month and the interns earn college credit for their work.

Bill Baetz reported he has been contacted by someone who has a chest of Rush County items such as post cards and photos. He will accept the donation on our behalf. He reminded the group that he is still holding the books that we had donated. Carol stated she needs to get with Steve Mahan again about storing items in the Rush Count Historical Society attic. Steve has been doing a lot of work there on the coach house.

Katrina Cooper reported that Bill had been able to post the Mays presentations to our website. He updated our Weebly account from free to the next level and we will pay a small fee in order to post these. She thanked him for all his efforts on the behalf of RCGS. ​Carol Jones introduced our guests, Joan Hostetler and John Harris. Joan reported about The Indiana Album project she is working on. She is the owner of Heritage Photo and Research Services as well. She gets requests for photos such as a picture of squirting milk in a cat’s mouth and one of the Saturday wash tub. She has already posted 7200 photographs to the Indiana Album site. She told about types of photos, tips on dating photos and how to store photos. She suggested we should have a Digital Estate plan and to be keep somewhere safe your passwords and where items can be accessed. While she was giving her presentation, John started working on scanning photographs people had brought in to share. Once the meeting was adjourned further scanning of photos was continued.